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On Tuesday, The Guardian posted an article about the US military pouring millions into researching how to become a Twitter-user-influencing, propaganda-spewing machine.
The program in question is known as Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC).
SMISC, which was announced in 2011, has been regarded as the means by which the US military can both detect and conduct propaganda campaigns via social media.
While DARPA's social media experiments well might have avoided breaking any law by using only publicly available data, some of its studies are sure to make people uncomfortable.
For example, some of the SMISC research has focused on the Occupy Wall Street protests and those in the Middle East, while other projects have analysed online memes and tweets from celebrities including Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga (described as "the most popular elite user on Twitter", according to The Guardian.
The manager of SMISC, Dr. Rand Waltzman, said in a post that understanding social media is just part of DARPA's "mission of preventing strategic surprise."
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Friday July 11 2014, @03:44PM
Have you selected the option to moderate?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @03:47PM
This is JUST for you (& your alter-ego Laminator X who resist allowing knowledge of upmod or downmod, since you use it yourself (not yourselves, you are his sock puppet, that much IS obvious). You can't control sock puppets and you know it. Nor do you intend to as it allows you to upmod yourselves between sock puppet accounts so you can downmod those who post things that do not fit your personal agenda http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2836&threshold=0&commentsort=0&mode=improvedthreaded&pid=67599#67641 [soylentnews.org] Yes, your kind can always be counted on to do the wrong thing and expose yourselves. Good job. You've just exposed your modus operandi and reasons for resisting the ability for others to see who upmodded or downmodded them. Is your favorite color transparent? I see RIGHT through you. So does everyone else.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @03:52PM
How exactly do you propose to control sock puppets (you can't, and you obviously use them yourself) http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2836&cid=67595 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @04:24PM
THEY wouldn't mind seeing who issues downmods - you sure do: WHY, is quite obvious based on little tin god's reaction alone http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2836&cid=67656 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by GlennC on Friday July 11 2014, @06:58PM
I had to check my settings, but I left it at the default, which is "Willing to Moderate."
I'm not worried about whether or not I can moderate, or if anyone can see how anyone else moderated.
Frankly, I'd be very concerned about those who put a lot of stock on how their comments are received.
I mean, it's not as if we're doing anything earth-shattering here....are we?
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @08:18PM
Like your "moderation" staff assholes here: Check this out - They resist what you yourself don't mind, in being able to tell who issued up or down mods. Why? It would give away the "moderation staff's" own modus operandi using sock puppets (which apk's post alluded to) themselves by letting others be able to see their detractors/naysayers, fairly, like courts of law even do.
They can't have that here.
It would upset the little tin god Laminator X's apple cart full of utter sockpuppeteering bullshit on his part.
As far as fairness in moderation here?
See this post http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2813&cid=66810 [soylentnews.org]
Tell us if it was off topic or not!
Answer = it is not, and apk the article submitter here today wrote that, and it is on topic, no questions asked. He asked them to review it, as I have yourself, and he complained how nothing was done there and apk is on topic right from that posts' outset yet rated off topic with examples of female illogic all thru his replies.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 12 2014, @12:31AM
The SN comments section isn't always like a court of law with rules of evidence, etc. Sometimes it can be more like an angry mob of cannibals. Right now, APK, you are looking mighty crispy and crunchy to this hungry mob.
APK, just stop for a moment. Take a deep breath. Take another one. Feel better now?
OK, you have made this accusation multiple times that everyone who disagrees with you is a sockpuppet of LaminatorX. It should be pretty obvious to any reasonable person that this is not true. Repeating it constantly does not, somehow, make it more true. In fact, repeating it constantly just shows you to be a strident, hyper-emotional, unhinged, neurotic git.
OK. It's off topic. There. I said it. Happy? The topic is supposed to be about DARPA's funding of research into using social media for propaganda purposes. Whether or not you should be allowed to get a window into who is downmodding you is neither here nor there with respect to the topic at hand.
Frankly, adding a touch of misogyny makes you look like the hysterical one in this conversation. Just sayin'.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 12 2014, @05:09PM
Trolling by ac trying to defend himself, failing badly. How can apk's post be off topic http://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=2813&cid=66810 [soylentnews.org] when it directly notes the topic at its outset on a theory of collisions of male vs female thinking HERE dumbass with supporting evidences thereof? He wrote the mods as instructed to get it changed and your bullshit falls apart again on that post alone. You fail again, Laminator X (and you know it).
(Score: 2) by GlennC on Monday July 14 2014, @02:55PM
I wouldn't say it was Offtopic.
Ranty and narcissistic, maybe, but like your post, it's tangental to the topic.
My main question is why you're so concerned about what a bunch of pseudonymous wankers (myself included) think about what you have to say?
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.